Indian River Facts

Indian River Quick Facts and Statistics

• Indian River lies within 5 Florida East Coast counties: Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, and Palm Beach County.

• 121 mile long Indian River is the largest lagoon in the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary.

• In spite of its name, the Indian River is not an actual river with a directional current, but a still water lagoon where the water's movement provided by wind and some minor tidal influence near the inlets.

• Indian River is a brackish water lagoon containing saltwater from ocean inlets and freshwater from river, creek, and drainage canal tributaries.

• Saltwater enters the Indian River lagoon from four Atlantic Ocean inlets: Sebastian, Ft. Pierce, Jupiter, and Palm Beach

• Freshwater rivers: Eau Gallie River, St. Sebastian, St. Lucie, Loxahatchee

• Freshwater feeder creeks include: Turnbull, Addison, Crane, Turkey Creek, Goat, Kid, Trout, Crawford, and Taylor.

• Indian River averages 4ft in depth with large shallow flats less than 2' deep. Man-made channels, canals, and marina basins are dredged much deeper.

• The Intracoastal Waterway, a national navigational channel through the entire Indian River, is maintained at a 10-12ft depth.

• There are currently 22 causeways and bridges spanning the Indian River.

See Also

Indian River

Web Links

• Indian River-Malabar to Vero Beach Aquatic Preserve
• Indian River-Vero Beach to Fort Pierce Aquatic Preserve
• FDEP - North IRL Basin Management Action Plan 2013 (PDF 117pp 2.4MB)

Documents

• Indian River Lagoon - An Introduction to a National Treasure (PDF 40pp 4.09MB)

References